Leveraging the News Feed

“Optimizing for Facebook’s EdgeRank is the new SEO,” said Chad. The EdgeRank algorithm determines how often your posts actually appear in your fans News Feed. This is the single most important determining factor to achieving organic reach in FB. Wittman commented “most brands only reach 12% of their fans per post, however brands that are leveraging the power of the News Feed reach +40% of their fans per post.” EdgeRank checker is a tool to help marketers analyze and understand the effect of EdgeRank on their posts to increase exposure and fan engagement, the currency of FB we all seek.

Signal vs. Noise

Once Facebook made the change to the News Feed layout, their focus shifted to how to make all the content that was being posted most relevant to their users.  “They wanted to be your everyday newspaper,” said Chad. EdgeRank was invented by FB to determine what a user sees within their News Feed. Chad noted they typically tweak it about every two weeks. What it’s trying to do is separate “signal” vs. “noise.” EdgeRank essentially became the next step in the evolution of search engines following the progress made by Yahoo and Google to point users away from “noise” to the direction of the content (or signal) they want.

Affinity

EdgeRank is the sum of three variables. The first factor is Affinity. Affinity is the relationship between users. When a person is using FB and liking, messaging, commenting, FB is tracking (gasp!) all of that to determine how connected the two users are. “This is a one-way relationship. If I’m always commenting on someone but they aren’t commenting back, I’m building affinity with that person or page, but they aren’t with me” explained Wittman. This is important for brands as there are only so many ways you can reach out to users. “Ultimately your goal is to get them to engage with your content; that is the only way you can affect this variable. You want to create content that drives likes, comments, clicks and shares. Increase engagement=increase affinity.”

Weight

The second variable is Weight. Weight is the quality of interactions on an edge. What is this thing and how important is it? Facebook gives a value to status updates, photos, likes and comments. One of the goals of EdgeRank Checker was to understand the differences in value FB gave to the various means of interacting. “We found that comments were four times more valuable than a like.” The key is realizing how much effort does a FB fan have to do to interact? A comment takes more effort than just liking a post, so that action has higher value.

Time Decay

The final variable is Time Decay, defined as how long a post actually lives on a News Feed. “What we found is that a typical post lasts (meaning continues to have engagement) about three hours on a News Feed.” Marketers should take note of this and perhaps reconsider posting three rapid fire posts in one shot and calling it good vs. pausing and mindfully adding content with adequate time in between to let them marinate properly. Of note is Wittman’s comment “You never want to post while another post is still alive. Facebook gives you a visibility of one. It cannibalizes your posts. If two posts are out there, one will kill the other, and it isn’t always the first post that goes down.” He did comment that paid media will extend the life of a post if you need it to go beyond the typical organic lifespan.

How to Improve your EdgeRank

Brands that are doing engagement well get three to four times the amount of average reach vs. the average user. How do they do it?

Call to Action

A basic strategy is click if you agree/disagree. Take it further by thinking how the user would consume this piece of content and how you are inviting them to interact with it. Are you only asking for likes? Are you following the same format with questions?

Test and Monitor Content

Export the FB Insights and look at who you are reaching and how you are reaching. EdgeRank Checker is a tool to help you go through process of analyzing the effect of different post content, day posted, even time posted.

Reduce Negative Feedback

Keep post content in line with the expectations of the audience. Looking at negative feedback, or those posts that are hidden, can provide insight to what content is valued.

What About Graph Search?

Graph Search is Facebook’s technology for finding people and things that are socially connected. It can be used to find people who share your interests, explore your world through photos, or find recommendations for restaurants, music and more.

Graph Search uses the nouns of FB (people, places, pages, apps, groups) to help users discover tailored results that are most relevant to them. It even takes into account slang terms such as “homies” and “peeps.” A fun fact from Chad’s WhatisGraphSearch.com page states that when social results are minimal they are supplemented by results from Bing. Check out that website for a deeper explanation of the mathematical guts operating in Graph Search.

Users are primarily searching for friends and photos, with places next in line. This is an opportunity for businesses to leverage Graph Search. While at this point you can’t advertise on Graph Search you can optimize your brand by adding Open Graph meta data to your website. Step by step instructions are on WhatisGraphSearch.com. Chad also advises completing your company Facebook page 100 percent and filling in all available fields. The tried and true strategies of continuing to build your fan base and posting engaging content still apply to the social connectedness Graph Search is built around. “Creating social connections between users is key to receiving search results exposure” said Chad. “Do it by understanding your audience and doing things they would like to like, comment on or share. Facebook will reward you for posting positive things that get people excited.”

Couldn’t Attend? Check out these resources to catch up:

YouTube video recording by geekazine
SMB Madison EdgeRank Checker PPT
GraphSearch PPT on SlideShare
Chad’s Blog
Whatisedgerank.com
WhatisGraphSearch.com
Introductory Prezi

Make sure to show your appreciation to our sponsors who keep this a quality event with fantastic food at terrific venues (and did we mention for no charge to you?!):

Location: BEST WESTERN PLUS InnTowner and the Highland Club

Charter Business, Food Fight Restaurant Group, Avenue Bar,  smart image, Suttle-Straus, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., geekazine, pc/nametag, DiditDirect, Melissa Carlson Creative

Written by Annie Rubens, integrated multimedia marketing and communications specialist including strategic social media page management. Annie.rubens@gmail.com

Photos by Bob Wydra of Did It Direct, carbon responsible marketing diditdirect@yahoo.com

The panelists were:

Catherine Showers, Digital Marketing Coordinator, St. Mary’s Hospital (@stmarysmadison), St Marys SMB Mad PPT

Trish Skram, (@TrishSkram) Media and Public Relations Specialist, Mercy Health System (@mercyhealth), Mercy.SMB Mad PPT

Sue Spaight, (@SueSpaight) Director of Strategy, Jigsaw, PowerPoint

Jennifer Walker, (@jw4lk) Social Media and Information Architect, UW Health (@UWHealth), UW Health SMB Mad PPT

St. Mary’s Hospital

The Facebook page for St. Mary’s has 3,138 likes, most of which are employees. Catherine said the majority of their posts are visual, and are aimed at celebrating the fun things their employees are doing in the hospital, community or while engaging with patients. Their Google+ page is the only one not currently blocked internally, so is a good way to cross-purpose their FB content. Catherine did speak about how challenging it was to manage the hundreds of ways Google was mapping their logo, and encouraged everyone to keep on top of claiming their listings. To promote various service lines such as their Family Birth Center, Cardiac Center or Stroke Center, St. Mary’s uses a well organized LinkedIn company page with thumbnail logos and a brief description with keywords that supports their SEO strategy.

Mercy Health System

Trish presented the strategic approach to social media used within the Mercy Health System. While known as a tool for supporting their brand, Trish noted “branding is not about logos and taglines, is about people and relationships. The purpose of our brand advertising is to let people know what they can expect from us.” With that in mind, Mercy defined their goals for social media:

Begin changing the mindset of under-appreciation
Emphasize the caring heart within the walls of Mercy
Focus on why Mercy does what it does, not on what it does
Build greater community involvement
Differentiate Mercy
Emphasize importance of having specialized care close to home

Made up of hospitals in three distinct counties, it was interesting to hear that each area defined their own social media objective. For Rock County it is to “lead the community in modeling appreciation while differentiating ourselves from the competition and building Mercy’s brand.” For Walworth County: promote the facility as the premier integrated health care provider in Walworth County. Finally, McHenry County (Illinois) focuses on promoting their “primary and specialty care physician practices and immediate care centers.”

To make access to their social presence easy for customers, Mercy houses quick links on one dedicated webpage: mercypulse.org. It is well worth checking out if you are seeking a good model for a clean approach beyond the usual 32×32 social media icons that frequent most websites.  Trish wrapped up by addressing what Mercy considers as measurements of success for their social media efforts. “It’s not about the views, impressions or visits. For us success is measured by engagement, service recovery and the ability to manage our brand.”

Jigsaw

Not the name of any hospital you know? You’re right. Sue was invited to present because Jigsaw lives in the strategy space for their healthcare clients. She wasted no time defining the very real barriers healthcare organizations face with using social media:

HIPPA
Overall risk aversion
Low appetite for innovation/early adoption
Limits on employee social media access at work
Physician/management mistrust of internet data
Difficult to secure clinician participation
Resource constraints
Unsure how to prove business case/ROI
Senior management knows we need to “do social media” but doesn’t necessarily understand the full potential or purpose.

While an intimidating list to be sure, Sue presented a confident case that social media “with strategic integration, can improve patient experience, improve outcomes, reduce the cost of care and build an accountable care model.” In her experience, social media can not only help drive patients to the right care pathway, but also supplement traditional offline patient support groups and use CRM to act as a measure of lifetime patient value. To support those assertions, Sue presented case studies from the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, The University of Maryland Medical Center, and the Inova Health System in Washington, D.C.  To get more details, go to her slides which are available here.

UW Health

Jennifer Walker, Social Media and Information Architect certainly had the coolest job title. UW Health is the overarching brand name for a massive organization of multiple business units including the School of Medicine and Public Health, the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics and the Medical Foundation. The social media effort falls under the “e-health team” that also oversees the websites and email marketing. UW Health.org builds its brand in multiple social spaces including FB, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and blogs. Structurally, a single manager is responsible for three main accounts. While that offers improved efficiency, Jennifer did mention this approach does slow down spontaneity and the managers are somewhat removed from where the action is for content. Other social accounts are targeted to very niche audiences, such as Dottie Donor Dot, Medical and Surgical Weight Management and transplant patients. While this provides information directly from content experts, it is difficult for staff to find time to post regularly.

Jennifer closed by outlining how they manage requests by individuals or departments to start a social presence specific to their unit. They were very proactive in setting up procedures and clear policies early on, which helped with providing a consistent approach to each case. There is a request form, the request must support the strategic mission, must have a unique audience, the effort needs the support of the VP as well as the VP of marketing. Lastly she covered how social media played a vibrant role in cross-purposing content and coverage of their largest event, the Champion for Kids radiothon.

Thank you to all of the terrific speakers, in particular Catherine who stepped up with 24 hours notice after a late cancellation and the effort by UW Health’s Christine Schmieden to recruit the panelists.

Make sure to show your appreciation to our sponsors who keep this a quality event with fantastic food at terrific venues:

Charter Business, HiveMind, LLC, American College of Healthcare Executives, UW-Hillel, Food Fight Restaurant Group, Bluephies Restaurant and Vodkatorium,  Suttle-Straus, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., smart image, geekazine, pc/nametag, DiditDirect, Melissa Carlson Creative,

Written by Annie Rubens, integrated multimedia marketing and communications specialist, strategic social media page manager. Annie.rubens@gmail.com   

Additional Resources:
Prezi slide show

Get Personal

Corey highlighted three keys to success in building a stable of devoted followers: get personal, forge connections and embrace fun. By figuring out what you uniquely offer that moves people and giving customers a way to implement feedback business owners can make great strides in building a community. “Learn what is important to your customer and why it is important” said Dane. “Then make what is important to them important to you.”

Forge Connections

His example for how a focus on connections can build loyalty was Starbucks. In a recent survey of the top 10 restaurants in social media, Starbucks was ranked at or near the top in the major platforms, and voted “best loved” food brand. Their focus on cultivating current relationships with sharable coupons, customized drinks and charitable endeavors all serve to build tremendous brand loyalty.

 Embrace Fun

Fun can build community, and Corey presented a number of companies that successfully embrace the lighter side. One well known for that philosophy is Southwest Airlines. Corey played a video of a flight attendant who presented the usual staid safety talk as an entertaining rap song, complete with all relevant tips. Yelp helps businesses with this “call to fun” by helping them hold entertaining theme parties and events to bring customers in their doors. From Fiesta De Pijamas to Yelp’s Under the Sea, these parties bring people together in memorable ways. “Businesses can make a lot of inroads in building their brand if they are willing to compliment their static ad presence and replace it with live events.”

Be unboring

As one of Yelp’s core values, Corey encouraged the audience to remember what they liked to do as a kid and to bring those feelings into their business. “Laugh out loud,” he said, and “build a forum where people can create, discover and inspire one another. When there is a fundamental shift in focus, from why you can’t do something to why are you not doing something, then the fun and the growth and the community building begins.”

A big shout out to our sponsors:  BEST WESTERN PLUS InnTowner and The Highland Club Charter Business, HiveMind, LLC,  pc/nametag, DiditDirect, Melissa Carlson Creative, Suttle-Straus, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., and Food Fight’s Bluephies Restaurant and Vodkatorium, Market Street Diner and Monty’s Blue Plate Diner.for the fantastic coffee and hot breakfast.

Links from Corey:
SOUTHWEST TAKE OFF RAP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvdCFYLf_JI

YELP CAME KNOCKIN’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clC9srevfMI

POSITIVE SIDE OF NEGATIVE REVIEWS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5RvFTZsxk&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=1

WHY RESPOND TO REVIEWS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFz9Oks1h50&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=2

HOW I BUILT A REPUTATION ON YELP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOqUhNB2UGk&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=6

WHY DOES YELP HAVE A FILTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAHhTptI3GA&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=7

YELP SF OFFICE TOUR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Zj17i7rww&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=13

YELP MOBILE ON THE VIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiOr_duhmFc&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=9

YELP ON PORTLANDIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INDtZifMsFM&list=PLIhLOX4mHf2G50cNYN3WDr9-MaoGJKcDz&index=12

Written by Annie Rubens, PR & Communications Coordinator, Madison College amrubens@madisoncollege.edu

Prezi introduction by Mike Walsh

While still in beta (you can sign up to be on the waitlist here) this new product promises to blend the best of the social data gold mine Facebook holds onto with  the wildest Boolean search combos you can come up with.

Facebook and the 2012 Election

To reach coveted voters, political strategists focused their attention with renewed vigor to social media outlets. Obama digital director Teddy Goff said “the problem with GOTV targets in the 18-29 year old age group is that half of them can’t be reached by phone.” In a classic case of toss your hook where the fish are, their research found roughly 85% of those without a listed phone number could be found on Facebook.

It became clear, politics is local, and politics is social. On Election Day alone there were 71.7 million mentions of the election on Facebook. The “social graph” of connections spread news, views and calls to action in a way that affected this election like no other. Although there are in actually more Facebook users (160 million) in the United States than there are eligible voters, the power of persuasion within the platform is where it showed its real power.

Harbath cited a Pew study which found that Facebook users are very politically active. 57% are more likely to persuade a friend or co-worker to vote; they are 2.5 x more likely to attend a rally (hey Madison, have any of those?) and they are 43% more likely to vote themselves. After the vote, Pew found that 45% of eligible voters were encouraged to vote through social media and 22% let their friends know they voted through social media channels. In the 2010 election, Facebook did an experiment with their 61 million users with the “I Voted” box.  Harbath said “by friends seeing friends had taken some sort of action, they sent 300,000+ more people to the polls.” It all goes back to the value of social proof, and trusting the opinion of a friend over a stranger.

Facebook as a Strategic Platform

The Obama campaign’s Facebook app was credited as “one of the most important things in the campaign that was built.” What it did, and its applicability to businesses, is turn supporters into messengers. When a user was driven to barackobama.com, and clicked on the “share on Facebook” button, the user would automatically message to their friends that they committed to vote. It would then show a “connect screen” and ask the user to share with specific friends in targeted areas, thereby spreading social influence to key battleground states. In addition, campaigns turned to Facebook as a primary message center, and followed a best practice to frequently add a photo or graphic image. “Posts with images gain about two times the amount of engagement than any other type of post” said Harbath. The image posted by the Obama campaign stands today as the most Liked image in Facebook history to date. Harbath advised “if you can add images that evoke emotion it is a proven formula for increasing the likelihood of sharing.”

Facebook as a News Platform

Campaigns also turned to Facebook to not only break news such as someone running for a seat, but also as a response tool. The Obama campaign posted a simple photo with the caption “This seat’s taken” in response to the infamous empty chair routine by Clint Eastwood at the GOP Convention. “They certainly pitched it to the press” said Harbath, “but this was a quick way to get all their supporters to rapidly counter what the Republicans were saying.”

Facebook as an App Platform

Apps were another tool (using Facebook’s Open Graph technology) that campaigns used to integrate social into their traditional website. Harbath noted, “When someone took an action, it shared that action with their friends.” For instance, if someone was volunteering to make calls for a campaign, and they were logged in, it shared that they were making those calls on their news feed.  “The more you start to see your friends taking action on a single thing, you start to wonder what you are missing out on” said Harbath. Statistics cited from the Obama campaign: one million Obama backers signed up for the “commit to vote” app, 600,000 friends of the campaign sent messages to five million contacts and one in five people contacted by a friend acted on the request. This jaw-dropping numbers caused Katie to ask the crowd, “How many of you would love a 20% return on investment?” Campaigns also used Facebook for petitions, merchandise, discount offers and innovative targeted advertising.

Harbath made sure to point out that the success of the campaigns use of social is very applicable to business. “Think about social and social design in everything that you are building. It will benefit you a lot in the long run, especially when you see how you can utilize supporters and long-term customers to bring more people into your door.”

Facebook Advertising

Katie ran through a number of advertising products Facebook now offers. More info is at Facebook.com/ads. It includes a dizzying array of choices to segment and target your audience. Mobile news feed advertising has been “incredibly effective” paired with short content and a strong image. “It is harder to read the text on a smaller screen, but an image will be noticed right away.” A new product, called “Custom Audiences” allows a buyer to leverage already identified segments of customers or prospects. Simply send Facebook a list of email addresses, they encrypt it and then tell you what percentage of those email addresses have Facebook profiles, which then you can target with an ad and reach the exact people you want to.

For those who are already buying ads, Katie did announce a new advertising policy. With the proven strength of images over text, purchased display ads may now only have text cover 20% of an image. There is a new grid tool available that helps identify the amount of text translated to that restriction by typing into boxes. Five boxes of text = 20% and that’s all you get.

Tips and Tricks

Katie wrapped up with some rapid-fire valuable advice:

1. There is a new feature called “Follow” essentially every time you post something, you choose who to share it with, for instance everyone (meaning public), or only those in custom lists such as family or co-workers. This can be strategically inclusive or exclusive! It also allows an unlimited number of people to follow your updates, beyond the 5,000 friend limit. The difference between this and a “friend” is that you can follow the posts of someone without knowing them personally. You have to be logged in, then go to: www.Facebook.com/about/follow.

2. Your profile image is the most important image you will ever post on Facebook because this is the one that will appear next to all of your content and news feed, and most people will never go back to your page. “Make sure it is clear, recognizable and truly represents you or your organization.”

3. Post short, succinct content. “Post between 100 and 250 characters, less than three lines of text. Short posts receive about 60% more likes, comments and shares than posts of 250 or more characters. Keep it short, then add a link for the reader to click on to find out more.”

4. Post photos or videos. When you upload an image; post a caption and a link where you want them to take additional action. “Posts featuring an album, photo or video generate 180%, 120% and 100% more engagement than text-only posts respectively.”

5. Post regularly. Post at least once a day, three to four times a day is the magic number. “We find that 9:00-10:00 pm is the timeframe of greatest engagement on Facebook.”

6. Ask for your fans opinion. “Your page should be a place for conversation and a way to gather feedback.”

7. Use their “Questions” product for polls.

8. Fill-in-the blank posts are a simple and popular way to garner fan engagement.

9. Give your fans access to exclusive information. “It doesn’t have to be anything hugely profound, it can be behind-the-scenes photos, breaking news, announcements or anything to help them feel special.”

10. Your post content should be timely. “The more you talk about what people are talking about the more likely you are to appear in their news feeds. Fans are more likely to share and engage with you about topics that are already on the top of their mind.” Build a content calendar with holidays and key events so you can look ahead for content to start building. “People like to share things so they look smart to their friends, so anything you can provide people to pass that feels like unique or insider knowledge is a good way to go.”

11. You can now schedule posts. The mechanism to do so is a graphic of a clock that appears directly below the “write something” box.

12. If you have more than 5,000 fans on your page, you can organically target posts. Below the status update box is a small graphic that looks like a target with four points. The drop down menu gives options to add targeting to your post including gender, age, location, language and more. It will also give you an estimate of how many people you can reach. “The benefit of adding targeting to your Page posts is so only the most relevant people will see the post in their news feeds. Unlike when you limit your Page’s audience, adding news feed targeting does not affect who can see the post on your Page, so anyone can still share it.”

13. Mobile page management is now available for Android! (It was Apple only for awhile). The app is called Facebook Pages Manager. This allows you to manage your page completely from your smartphone.

14. Insights. The key metrics Katie recommends paying attention to are People talking about this and Weekly Total Reach. “People talking” is the number of unique people that have interacted with your page in some way, shape or form. This shows how high your engagement level is. Weekly total reach is the number of unique people over the last seven days that have seen your content, by your fans sharing with their friends. “Even though you have a fan, that is just the first stage of the relationship. You need to be engaging with them, sharing content that they in turn share as well. If they stop engaging with you, it is less likely they will see your content in their news feed.”

15. Ads Social Plugins to your website. They are tidbits of code that make it easy to like your page and share your content on Facebook. Go to Developers.facebook.com

16. Page apps can add a lot of targeted functionality. www.involver.com is one source.

The last thing Katie talked about is Instagram. It is a completely mobile app that allows you to easily share photos over all of your other social platforms. Some How tos are on slides 53-56.

Resources from Katie

As promised, Katie provided the following links to questions that were posed by the audience:

1. Effect of targeted posts

NPR’s work on these. Link has aa few stories on it: http://digitalservices.npr.org/term/facebook-geofocusing-experiment

2. Best practices for image size and resolution (issue with uploading albums not getting pulled in to news feed)

Albums issue is a bug we’re working on. The recommendation for image size and resolution tell folks to check the attached ads and sponsored stories guide. This will help anyone on ads and if they want image size they can look at the page photo post specs.

3. Trolling issue- solution when someone is attacking legitimate content (blocklists) (sample policies for banning users)

Moderation blocklist: https://www.facebook.com/help/131671940241729/

U.S. Army comments policy: https://www.facebook.com/USarmy/info

4. Resources for parents/teachers to talk to youthful users

https://www.facebook.com/safety

5. About contests

Promotions guidelines are here on section E https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

6. Resources for reading to stay up on changes (sites/blogs/magazines)

1. Facebook.com/facebookpages
2. Allfacebook.com
3. Mashable.com
4. Techcrunch.com
5. https://developers.facebook.com/blog/

7. Resources for free apps for tabs (best of)

http://www.involver.com/applications/

8. Power_Editor and Ads and Sponsored Stories Guide (guides attached)

9. About the subscribe option

Http://www.facebook.com/about/follow

10. Non-profits best tips and tricks

https://www.facebook.com/nonprofits

11. Shut off in settings so can’t be used in a sponsored ad

Here is more info on that. I was mistaken in that you can opt out of social actions but not sponsored stories. https://www.facebook.com/help/155389304528852/

12. Sign up for graph search beta

Http://www.facebook.com/graphsearch

Truly a info-packed power hour! A heartfelt thank you to Katie for sharing so much rich content!

A big shout out to our sponsors: Hiebing, HiveMind, LLC, Engaging Social, pc/nametag, DiditDirect, Melissa Carlson Creative, Suttle-Straus, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., Christine Schmieden for securing the beautiful auditorium for this event and Food Fight’s Market Street Diner in Sun Prairie for the fantastic coffee and breakfast treats.
Here is the Prezi if you really want to have the complete collection!

Written by Annie Rubens, PR & Communications Coordinator, Madison College amrubens@madisoncollege.edu

Photos by Bob Wydra of Did It Direct, carbon responsible marketing diditdirect@yahoo.com

Social Media Breakfast co-managers (L-R) Rena Ripp, Lance Ratze, Katie Harbath (guest), Tony Rodriguez, Mike Walsh, Annie Rubens, Paul Stokes, Bob Wydra.

Captain Charles Foulke, from the City of Middleton Police Department (@MiddletonPD )         (https://www.facebook.com/middletonpd) led off the presentation with remarks about the emerging laws regarding privacy issues and how law enforcement agencies can use social media. While the Constitution gives you the right to free speech, Foulke noted “there are consequences for your public posts. What you give to the public belongs to the public, and police have the right to engage and use those posts for information and investigations.” A nifty fact contributed on the #smbmad live twitter stream from @WendySoucie said “when challenged, social media as evidence for search warrants holds up in court 87% of the time.”

Elise Schaffer, Public Information and Education Officer for the Dane County Sheriff’s Office (@DaneSheriff ) (facebook.com/danecountysherriff) said her office started into social media “to show the public a different side of law enforcement.” They saw it as a terrific tool for recruitment to reach the high school/college age audience, as well as a means to promote special events such as “Shop with a Cop” or “National Night Out” that illustrate the human side of their officers.

She noted that press releases are very formal, with language such as “alleged” and “preliminary investigation,” while social media has allowed more freedom to show their lighter side and include photos. “We find it is a great way to convey the information we want the public to hear, in the way we want them to hear it.”

Joel Despain, Public Information Officer for the Madison Police Department (@MadisonPolice) reflected on the changes in the way information has flowed from law enforcement and the media to the public. Joel came from a journalism background “It used to be rip and read, with piles of paper coming off the wire and tips came from a visit to the local coffee shop.” Fast forward to today, and Joel’s incident reports have become the daily blog post for their department, which then are shared on their Twitter account and RSS feed. “I like the man bites dog types of stories. I learned very quickly what the concept of “viral” meant when the Times of London called me for comment about a report I posted.”

“Now zero reporters come knocking on my door. They read the feeds, and we are first telling our own story.” He said they have used Facebook successfully on the Madison Area Crime Stoppers site for posting surveillance videos and photos and asking for citizens to help identify those depicted. The speed of information can also of course be a detriment, if false information is spread. “We have to ride herd if some social media information is wrong, because it spreads like wildfire.”

Captain Charles Foulke stepped up again to speak in place of Keith Cleasby, Social Media Manager for the Middleton Police Department who could not attend. He commented on his surprise how much people pay attention to their posts. “The website is fairly static, but when we put out information about a change in traffic pattern, we received a lot of comments!” He said they use social media for community outreach, crime alerts, traffic information and weather alerts.

The captain also brought to light the “everlasting” public nature of social media posts. “I am always surprised what some knuckleheads put on Facebook.” He confirmed it is a common practice in the early stages of recruitment to review what a potential candidate has been posting, to see if there are any warning signs that could influence their effectiveness as a law enforcement officer.

Another interesting use of social media he mentioned was as a source of information about what is being planned by various groups for protests.  When the capitol protests were heating up, advanced notice of potential group gatherings allowed for appropriate planning for deployment of resources and heading off problems before they started.

When workers representing Palermo’s pizza were gearing up for picketing at Costco, leaders of the groups were identified and contacted so they could start information exchange about what they could and could not legally do during their protests. Another interesting example of the benefits of listening to social chatter was when Ann Romney was planning a visit to a local restaurant. Hearing that a group was planning to come in early and take up every table in the joint, Middleton police were able to set up an alternative place for her to go.

Sergeant Troy Hellenbrand from the City of Middleton Police Department shared some amazing stories about their use of social media in the investigative process. “People will post bragging comments about committing a crime, or post photos of themselves with their new weapons. We have used Facebook photos to link a person to a tattoo that a witness identified on the suspect.” For more on this read this article “7 suspected criminals who got themselves caught via Facebook.”

Bill Curtis, Emergency Management Supervisor for the Emergency Management Unit at UW-Madison Police Department (@UWMadisonPolice) shared some statistics about the high use of social media such as 4 out of 5 officers are using it as a tool, 2/3 believe it helps solve crimes more quickly and smaller community departments are more apt to adopt it as a tool. He supported the notion shared earlier that social media is a terrific tool to reach out to the community, build partnerships and keep the flow of information going between themselves and the citizens they protect. “Social media has become the cornerstone of information flow.”

He also spoke about the broad use of social channels to give and get information about recent natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy. “Response agencies are now relying on social media to provide information as well as gain situational awareness.” He noted the speed of social communication in the case of the Virginia Tech shooting, as the unofficial “are you ok?” posts on Facebook were seven minutes ahead of any official communications. “People are switching to social for information, as text and data lines can quickly become overwhelmed in emergencies.” The flip side of that speed, however, is the growing expectation that those channels are monitored 24/7 and calls for help delivered over social channels will get the same, if not faster response than through the 911 system. There are exciting possibilities for alternatives to 911, as he showed a graph from technology used in Haiti to monitor data generated by crowdsourcing and indicator messages, but it is not widely adopted in the U.S. yet.

Some great questions wrapped up the time that always blazes by.

A shout out of thanks to our sponsors, make sure you follow them on social as a way to give thanks for keeping you fed and these events free!

Charter Business, HiveMind, LLC, Marriott Madison West, Engaging Social, DiditDirect Inc., Melissa Carlson Creative, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c. and pc/nametag

You can view the Prezi at:

http://go.wisc.edu/r12119

Thanks Wendy Soucie for her research on the use of social media by law enforcement agencies that she shared on the #smbmad live twitter feed:

International Association of Chiefs of Police Center for Social Media

“Local law enforcement embraces social media as crime-fighting tool”

“Why Citizens Demand More Social Media in Law Enforcement”

“Social Media’s Role In Law Enforcement Growing. Infographic

Video: Social Media in Law Enforcement

Law Enforcements Turn to Social Media to Better Protect Public, Solve Crimes

Written by Annie Rubens, PR & Communications Coordinator, Madison College amrubens@madisoncollege.edu

For both her personal and business use, Carleen manages four Facebook pages, two Twitter accounts and a LinkedIn profile. “We are required to be on Facebook for the station and everyone takes a role. It is a great medium for getting news out about school closings and weather.” She noted the volume of the information, and the time it can take to manage all the social spaces can at times be overwhelming. “I can start my day on Tweetdeck and pretty soon an article here, a link there, and I haven’t even touched what I need to be doing that day.”

She said Twitter has been an excellent tool for booking guests and meeting new people. You could feel the public relations professionals in the room sit up and take notice when she said she would rather get a direct message on Twitter about a potential story than the 300 to 400 emailed press releases she gets in a day.

Carleen also commented on the flip side of social media. “Privacy and security is a huge issue for us. I am very selective about who I friend.” She posed an interesting question to the 180 in attendance when she mused “how many of you invited someone to coffee this past week? Yet we make 15 friends a day on Facebook.” Certainly reason to pause and wonder where have all the genuine conversations gone?

Leigh answered a question about the guidelines the station sets for their use of social media. Essentially the policy is “Tweet at your own risk.” She talked about how social media has drastically changed the playing field in the time-honored competition of who is the first to scoop a story. In the past, a reporter would get a source, investigate the story, come back quietly, fact check and then broadcast. “Now it is a race to see who gets the first tweet out, and if I beat my competition by 17 seconds, it is cause for celebration!”

How do they promote viewer engagement? In newscasts they often mention their Facebook page as a place for viewers to comment about a story. They also have started running their Twitter handles on the screen as stories are being presented. “Often times those posts lead us to additional stories or more sources for follow-up pieces.”

How do they handle negative comments? They noted the personal connection viewers often make with media personalities. Both make a lot of effort to read and reply to comments, but also do not hesitate to draw boundaries if the comments go too far. “I reply that I saw their post, if a post is marginal I give them a warning, if it happens a third time I block them. If it is about me personally I decide if they will have access to me going forward” said Mills.  Wild, on the other hand, noted “I find criticism kind of entertaining. My hair is my #1 complaint. If you are a business you can’t just block negative comments. You take it in, confront it head on and learn from it. We are a public medium, we constantly get questioned why we took an angle to a story, or why we presented a side the way we did. We want to answer the questions and explain our reasoning, and if they have a valid point, we fix it and move on.”

An audience member asked about how they maintain a separate identity for personal and private lives. They said their primary posts are about work. “For awhile, when Twitter was coming onto the scene, everyone was on it, and it was ‘game on’ with no limits to what you posted to represent your business. Now I’ve really stepped back,” said Wild. “I just read a book: Never Check Email First Thing in the Morning and now I try to make sure I have genuine conversations and balance in my personal life.”

As noted earlier, the topic of news releases came up, and they both mentioned the incredibly crowded space of their inbox, with both receiving an average of over 300 emails a day. You’ve heard it before; take the time to create a catchy and interesting subject line. What was the best tip of the day? “If you have an event, don’t pitch the event, pitch the story.” If you can humanize the point of the event, and make it personal, that will catch their attention much more than one more invitation to one of the hundreds of events that happen across Dane county. General press releases blasted to the multitudes are simply not effective.

So where will news come from in the future? Their prediction is that the TV we know today won’t be the same tomorrow, and everything will be interactive. Even now, there is a shift in what is covered by what is clicked on. Carleen said “people say they don’t want crime and shooting stories, but that is what gets opened and commented on the most by far. You all have a say in what is covered, and your vote is expressed by your clicks.”

As usual, the time went by too quickly, and there were many more comments and questions left for pondering. For follow-up, Carleen posted two Tweets that have some good additional resources:

Also, #smbmad tweeps, you probably have seen these stats but if not: http://bit.ly/QZ3b9S  little #mindboggling #evolvingmedia #powerofatweet

A few resources thought useful/interesting to share but didn’t have chance at #smbmad: http://slidesha.re/TceGXE

Tremendous thanks to both Leigh and Carleen for their time and insight.

Also, a big thank you to our sponsors. Please Like ‘em today to show your appreciation for keeping this a free event with food to boot!

Location sponsor:

UW Health

Supporting Sponsors:

Bella Domicile

Charter Business

DiditDirect, Inc.

Engaging Social

HiveMind, LLC,

Marriott Madison West

Melissa Carlson Creative

pc/nametag

Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.

Suttle-Straus, Inc.

Written by Annie Rubens, Rubens Consulting: Creative marketing and social media consultant  with professional photography for added flavor annie.rubens@gmail.com

Next up:

December 19, 2012

Topic: Law Enforcement Use of Social Media
Location: Madison Marriott West Hotel and Conference Center
1313 John Q Hammons Drive
Middleton, WI 53562
Panel:
Joel Despain, Madison Police Department
Captain Charles Foulke, Sergeant Troy Hellenbrand & Keith Cleasby, Middleton Police Department
Bill Curtis, UW Madison Police Department

Social Media Breakfast Madison went global on October 17 with guest speaker Brian Stokoe, Social Media Strategist for Caterpillar, Inc. Caterpillar (Cat) is well known as a leader in size, scope, and reach. With over 125,000 employees, over $60 billion in sales and revenue and 191 dealers around the globe, Cat’s customer segments and audience are as broad as they are diverse.

Brian’s job is to define the social media strategy for the entire company and work with a variety of stakeholders to define what is the right approach for reaching and interacting with its wide-ranging internal and external audience.

Three principles
To manage what may seem an overwhelming task, Cat’s social media perspective is focused on three principles:

Customers are talking
Answer the social telephone
Be open & transparent

“Conversations are happening about your brand. It is essential to be aware and even more important to get involved in the discussions by participating in them. If you ignore this fact opportunities can, will and are falling through the cracks” said Brian.

Brian emphasized the necessity of joining the conversation. “It is not always comfortable, but it is better to participate, make your point and present your stance than to ignore the social phone that is ringing. If you don’t say anything, the rumor mills start churning out posts that aren’t based on facts, and that can be severely damaging to the brand.”

As part of its social media strategy, Caterpillar empowers its entire organization to be active in the social space. To protect brand consistency Brian acts as a consultant and resource to point the different groups in the right direction. “We help them plan to use the tools to support their marketing efforts, but also make sure they are aware of their responsibility to protect the brand.”

Be smart and selective
Brian’s next point was to be smart and selective. “We try to avoid the shining object syndrome.”  When a new platform pops up they are very strategic in their analysis of its business value. His example was Pinterest. While it is the third fastest growing social media tool, it’s demographic of 70% female users does not fit their target audience, so Cat has opted out of it for now.  “We do experiment, but scientifically is the key. We think about what we are doing with the channel and make sure we have a measurable business result.”

Impact on the Customer Experience
Cat realizes social media impacts the entire life cycle of the customer experience, from initial brand awareness to the purchase decision. “Social can influence product innovation, the effectiveness of our promotions, the reach of our experts, identify product issues, connect customers and sell for us via user reviews and ratings.”

Brian summed it up this way: “every physical activity must have a corresponding social activity.” To accomplish that goal, Cat has four areas of focus for their social media strategy.
Four Pillars of Social Media Strategy
The four areas that Cat has defined as foundational for their social media strategy are:

Social Listening
Promotion
Thought Leadership
Customer Support

Social Listening is done in real time with a dedicated team which evaluates every post and categorizes it so the comment gets redirected to the right subject matter expert to reply to the customer making the comment. When asked what tool they use Brian mentioned is Radian6.

One example of how they combine listening with promotion is on its “Fans Album” Facebook page. At a glance, one can see the level of dedication to the brand extends far beyond a simple purchase. Cat logo tattoos, toy collections, kids and their favorite Cat toy, and a custom painted Harley are all testimony to the depth of the relationship Cat fans have with the brand.

For thought leadership Cat utilizes blog posts by the experts behind the product. “The brand takes us far, but we knew there was great value in creating a venue for customers to have access to brand professionals.” Brian has built a pool of experts within the company to contribute articles to blogs, industry publications and online forums.

The final critical use of social is to offer customer support. Cat hosts forums as an opportunity to show the business value in purchasing a Cat product doesn’t stop at the cash register. Posts seeking opinions, requests for information or technical support for a mechanical problem are all seen as opportunities. “Social gives us the ability to engage and participate with our customers in a meaningful way by providing help and solutions” said Brian.

By listening, embracing the opportunity for conversation and providing helpful content, Brian clearly demonstrated the ability for a global brand to utilize social media as a strategic tool.

Tremendous thanks to our sponsors:

Please Like ‘em today to show your appreciation for keeping this a free event!

Charter Business

DiditDirect, Inc.

Engaging Social

Marriott Madison West

Melissa Carlson Creative

pc/nametag

Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.

Suttle-Straus, Inc.

Written by Annie Rubens, Rubens Consulting: Creative consultant for dynamic writing and professional photography annie.rubens@gmail.com

Photos by Bob Wydra of Did It Direct, carbon responsible marketing diditdirect@yahoo.com

Next up:

November 21, 2012
Topic:  Broadcast Journalism and Social Media
Location: Health Sciences Learning Center (HSLC)
750 Highland Ave  #1325
Madison, WI 53792
Speakers: Carleen Wild and Leigh Mills of NBC-15

When we first met, Brian introduced me to the concept of keiretsu, and it wasn’t something on the menu. “The crux of effective marketing strategy with mobile is all about link logic and the interlocking relationship of your links with what is valuable to the search engines” he told me.  Brian related the parallels to keiretsu, a concept from the world of Japanese business that means a set of companies with interlocking business relationships.

“An effective approach to mobile is connecting the different worlds of the web, apps, the physical and the digital, just like the Japanese connect different businesses to be a stronger whole.”

In the new reality of the web which incorporates multiple devices, businesses have to stretch their search engine optimization strategies to the m.dot world to be present in the dynamic intersection of mobile, search and social.

The three keys to transcending this complicated matrix are:

• Dominate Mobile search
• Connect Web and Apps
• Link Physical and Digital

Dominate Mobile Search

It’s all about landing on page one, because if you aren’t there, you aren’t anywhere. “The architecture of your website should conditionally redirect and using keyword rich URLs is critical.” We’ve all seen it; those long url’s full of gobbly gook link breadcrumbs that fill up even your cool new IPhone 5 screen. “What you say in your links matters more than anything else” said Brian, “and title tags matter across all platforms.”

Essentially the same rules of good Search Engine Optimization apply to the mobile world, as it is the same bots that are doing the crawling to see if what you have to share is deemed worthy of high page placement.  “Does your link text catch their eye and give information, or is it just one of a million ‘click here’ links?”

Right along with getting them there is keeping them there with strong mobile content. “Relevant page copy is critical to keeping the customer’s attention, and you keep the attention of the search engines with rich tags and H1 copy.” Internally linked content with optimal anchor text says to the bots you are a relevant resource and they will be more apt to index and display your site higher.

Mobile and Facebook

“Social profiles have supermassive link equity.” One of Brian’s best tips was to think about how you link the “F” graphic Facebook icon. “You already link from your desktop site to your Facebook profile. Include your brand name as your link anchor text, instead of the usual “Find us on Facebook.” He suggests using 1-2 keywords in your page title and title tag so Google can crawl your name and get more information.  Pretend you are a bot. What would grab your eye:  Yola’s Coffee Shop or “Yola’s Cafe & Coffee Shop of Madison.” Load your Facebook “About” profile with key words, and link from your other social profiles. This is keiretsu in practice. Build your own coalition where each of your sites has the other’s back, and reinforces one another. Read more about this concept at Brian’s blog: http://po2.co/optimizefb

Get your Apps Ranked #1

It’s no surprise by now that links have power. “App pages have supermassive link equity.” In short here are his tips:

• Feature brand prominently in app name
• Avoid linking solely through app icons
• Link to profile from home page or footer
• Include brand name in anchor text
• Cross-promote to mobile users
• Optimize press releases

Read more: http://po2.co/app-seo

Local Listings have power too

Claim and optimize business profiles in Google Places/Maps and Bing Maps, and optimize for social networks that provide location info through apps such as  Facebook Places and  Foursquare. Hot on their tail are  Urban Spoon and Yelp so utilize those as well.

Connect the web and your apps

This is deep stuff here, but the essence is, get them to your social page quicker. We’ve all been there, you get invited to a page, and the first thing you hit is the “log in” page. By learning your profiles URL within the app you can link mobile users directly to your page and bypass the log in step. It works, check it out for yourself: http://po2.co/fb. Contact Brian for more info on this trick.

Link Physical and Digital

“Make sure you have value-added content that folks can shortcut to.” For instance, a quick link to a how to video, access ratings and reviews, or connecting to maps or directions.

Brian also gave some terrific tips about the best way to utilize the now ubiquitous QR codes.  “Bigger, bolder pixels are better.” He suggests using low density codes that are easier for the phones to read even from further distances. “Compress your urls to less than 30 characters.” Brian has a guide for best practices in this blog article:http://po2.co/qr-guide.

It is all about delivering optimal user experience in a mobile world. “Mobile is taking us much farther than we can imagine. The data coming from Google is now overlaid onto our world. When the automobile was introduced our world expanded. Now with mobile, new roads have been paved, and we have the opportunity to embrace it.”

Access Brian’s presentation slides “Mobiles’ Brave New World for Social Marketers” and the links he mentioned: http://t.co/lC2dYVE4

Tremendous thanks to our sponsors:

Please Like ‘em today to show your appreciation for keeping this a free event!

C. Blohm & Associates, Inc.

CUNA Mutual Group

DiditDirect, Inc.

Engaging Social

Melissa Carlson Creative

Mid-West Digital Marketing

pc/nametag

Suttle-Straus, Inc.

Written by Annie Rubens, Rubens Consulting: Creative consultant for dynamic writing and professional photography annie.rubens@gmail.com

DAM, of course you knew I meant Digital Asset Management,was tackled from three diverse perspectives, a photographer, Bob Wydra of DidItDirect, Nick Ring, an innovative social media entrepreneur from Engaging Social, and Jake Athey of Widen Enterprises a 60 year-old company with origins in the print world that has reinvented itself with cutting-edge technology to provide the concept of “Repurposeaceous,” meaning if you can find the digital file you want efficiently, you can use it in a lot of places, and isn’t that the heart of what we all want to do?

Bob’s world is images, and he spoke to what it takes to create, place and manage images that excite, engage  and work to lead your clients to a sale. “Use images common to your core demographic, images that compel emotion. You have 1/60^th of a second to tell your story.”

Using images that are technically correct, meaning good (and higher) contrast, color and exposure is worth the time it takes outside of the camera with simple photo editing software to get it right. Bob advised to bring the highlights up 10% for the best result, and pointed out that “smiles are the new premium commodity.”

With the emphasis on images in the Facebook timeline format, Bob said “find the story within the story with good cropping.” He also advised, “Don’t just load and go.” When you build an album, Bob likes what he calls “the 4 post rule.” The first image determines your layout and becomes your main image, and the three following load at a 1 to 1 ratio. Size it right before you upload for best results. The profile should not be smaller than 180 pixels x 180p, and the timeline is 851 px x 315 px.

Also, take the time to tell a story with the order of the images in your album.  You have the power (thanks Zuck!) to click on an image and drag and drop it to place your image in an order that makes sense to the viewer. Consider even a spot for some sponsor info, or a call to action to go to your website. “Approach album building as a sales scenario.”

The other opportunity that is often bypassed with images is giving them descriptive file names to take advantage of the search engine optimization. If you were a hungry bot, what would you like to chew on? This: www.yoursite.com/images/photo-356789.jpg or this: www.yoursite.com/images/row-boat-by-lake.jpg.

Your other gift from Mark Zuckerberg is @ and tagging. “Using the tag and @ feature will connect you to your outer sphere of influence” as your posts then feed into the stream of those you are tagging, and presto, be ready to shake hands with their fan base.

“Don’t be a dead poster” meaning, posting a photo with no other information. “I never trust a naked picture, would you?” Bob’s final tidbit was to “do what they do in television, go to commercial break.” What does that mean? It means make them stay tuned, don’t post all your images at once, eek them out in stages and batches, and keep them wanting more. For more info contact Bob at diditdirect@yahoo.com.

 Nick Ring from Engaging Social provided a peek behind the magic curtain of Facebook’s mysterious “Edge Rank.” Seriously complicated stuff, and I encourage you to cut to the chase and contact Nick directly (nick@engagingsocial.com) as I can tell you right now this format will not do his knowledge justice (but don’t stop reading!).

Facebook wants to make money (tanking share value, what tanking share value?).  The new “Promote a post” feature can bust the budget very quickly but Nick is here to assure everyone, you can do it organically if you understand EdgeRank.

Did you know that less than 16% of your fans on your Facebook page will even see the content you send out? The average person has 130 fans and with an average of 2.5 posts a day, that quickly adds up to 325 posts. “That doesn’t even count their likes, shares and comments.”  To remedy this post-fest, Facebook has taken it upon themselves to allow only the most important things to really be seen.

What are the most important things? Well kids, get out your notebooks and drink more coffee for this formula: Affinity x Weight x Time Decay = EdgeRank.

Affinity is the relationship someone has with your page or the content you send out. The more comments, likes, shares and page visits, the higher the affinity ranking. Weight is the content you send out and how people interact with it. Ranked from highest to lowest: Questions, photos, videos, links and text. Comment, Share and Like is the value high to low for how people interact with your post.

Time Decay (I wish the parking ramp used this concept!) is how long has your content been out there. The average post has a shelf life of about three hours. So when you are thinking about when to post, you don’t want to send out your best stuff at 2 a.m. nor do you want to stack posts too close together. “You’re never truly giving that post the best possible chance to get seen by the most people.

Nick’s nugget: “the minimum time delay I would send a post is an hour apart.”

What are other ways to get engagement? Keep it short. Admit it; you are a scanner, aren’t you? Yes, we all are, so just fess up and keep it moving for everyone’s sake. “Short updates (80 characters or less) tend to receive the most engagement.  27% more engagement in fact.”

Nick’s nugget: “be a Tweeter even in Facebook.”

If nothing else, be consistent. “Post five times a week.” Nick also shared the most active times on Facebook are 11am, 3pm and 8pm.  “It’s also important to note that the first fifteen minutes of each hour get the most engagement.” And once you’ve got them engaged, “tell your customers what you would like them to do, meaning “like this, share  this, fill in the blank, take this poll, etc.”

DAM! What’s left?

With some files here in one format, and more files over there in another format, how do we find the right file for the right platform? Jake spoke to Widen’s ability to help their customers gain control over the typical explosion of digital assets via their Digital Asset Management platform. “We can convert your logo file into any optimal size and format, rather than you storing and tracking of fifteen different versions.”

Next, they can tackle Metadata. No, that is not the new superhero coming out this summer, it is the keywords that give your assets meaning.  The next feature of their service is assigning roles and permissions, the “who and the how.” DAM can also provide tracking and auditing to give you control. “Imagine being able to see at a glance how a file has been used, and if any new versions have been uploaded.”

Last but not least is getting meaning, and for that analytics steps into the picture. “By knowing what your files are doing, you can be smarter and more efficient, leaving more time for the creative work, and less for the administrative.”  For more information on Widen’s capabilities, contact Jake at: jathey@widen.com.

So unclog the log jam dam in your digital file folder, apply some of these tips, contact these smart folks, and let the files flow!

Thank you Sponsors!

Location Sponsor: UW Health

Ongoing – Engaging Social

Supporting – Suttle Straus, Melissa Carlson Creative

Written by Annie Rubens, Rubens Consulting: Creative consultant for dynamic writing and professional photography annie.rubens@gmail.com

Photos by Bob Wydra of Did It Direct, carbon responsible marketing diditdirect@yahoo.com

Next up:

September 19, 2012
Topic: Mobile’s Brave New World for Search and Social Marketers
Location: CUNA Mutual Auditorium
5810 Mineral Point Road
Madison, WI 53705
Must check in at front desk.
Speaker: Brian Klais, Pure Oxygen

This is just one of the gems shared by Karen Putz at Wednesday’s SMB Mad gathering. Far from an “ordinary mommy blogger” Karen shared her inspirational personal and professional journey into the world of social media with humor, insight, style and class.

“Yes, I married a putz.” With that opening line, how could you not like her? Karen manages the social media accounts of several non-profit organizations and small businesses with narrow niche (you decide how to pronounce niche!) She shared the tips and tricks she discovered over the years, especially the value of having a memorable Twitter handle like hers @DeafMom .

A few opening questions set the stage: “Is it worth going into social media” she asked? To answer this she related the story of her dad and his business getting left behind. “No one can find him on the web and he certainly is not generating any talk about his business.”

“You say you don’t have time? You make time everyday to go to the bathroom; you can even do a little Tweeting then!”

“Are your webcasts and podcasts caption enabled?” If not, you are missing an audience of 38 million hearing impaired people who buy goods and services just like you do.”

Mommy blogging

Karen started with a simple blog in 2006 titled “A Deaf Mom Shares her World. She liked to write and had things to say. She had no idea those two key words, deaf & mom would set her apart and help define her to two unique audiences.

“It just grew, and I became known as a mommy blogger. People found me when they searched for ‘mom’ or ‘deaf.’” She related a story about a Motrin commercial that implied moms who wore baby slings were always in pain. To put it simply, mom’s got mad. They lit up the internet with blogs and posts, and for 48 hours the backlash grew and picked up steam. The catch was that Motrin wasn’t paying attention until Monday morning. “You can’t take the weekend off! You have to pay attention to social media and immediately reply to feedback or risk ruining your reputation.”

The day everything changed

Have you ever thought about the usefulness of a drive-up service when you are deaf?  The call of a milk shake was strong, and one day Karen pulled up to an “I can’t say their name” restaurant.

She pulled up to the window and ordered two milkshakes. “Sorry ma’am you have to drive around and give us the order through the speaker.”

“I’m deaf, I won’t be able to hear you speaking.”

“Sorry ma’am, you have to drive around to place your order.”

“I just want 2 milkshakes, I’m deaf!”

He threatened to call the police for her holding up the line.

So what does a writer do? After driving off sans-milkshake, Karen went home and blogged about it. After one simple post, and one tweet, over 100 blogs picked up the story, and she was interviewed by multiple national newspapers, FOX and ABC news among others.

“Remember, Google is Latin for ‘lives forever.

What’s your handle?

As mentioned, Karen’s Twitter handle is @DeafMom. She cautioned against complicated Twitter handles with numbers, symbols or underscores. Keep it memorable and short. She also spoke about how she utilizes lists to build her community in a broad and efficient way. In addition, she encouraged the use of Twitter to monitor your competition, as well as track how often your brand is mentioned.

Content doesn’t have to be “usual stuff expected” be who you are. Work in your passion, allow others to get to know you, weave it in. You are interesting! Show it!

Follow someone new and off beat and learn from them.

Tell your story.

Share what is unique about you or your business.

“Are you showing, teaching, or giving someone something new about your business? If you are going to fall asleep on your own feed, everyone else will too.”

Karen went on to say “you never know who is watching you, so if you write something, ask yourself, ‘would I show this to my grandmother?’ before you hit post. “You just don’t know how what you write will impact people” she said.

“Don’t think too narrow, that what you post is just seen on your page.” She told a story about how a gentleman from Germany contacted her who saw a picture of the back of his cousin from Indiana on her Facebook page. Now she and the cousin are friends and do barefoot water skiing together.

“By sharing your story, and utilizing network, it can lead to sponsors, but the best thing is the connections you make are priceless.”

Best tip of All

“Be Weird” by Tom Ziglar, Born to Win

“If you blend in, you will be blended. People are tired of being spammed, the most powerful way to connect is through your story. Instead of focusing on sales, focus on the message and use your unique story to really connect with people.”

Thank you to our sponsors

Presenting Sponsor: Al Zobel, Mass Mutual Insurance

Ongoing – Engaging Social, Robert Half International

Supporting – Suttle-Straus, Melissa Carlson Creative

Written by Annie Rubens, Rubens Consulting: Creative consultant for dynamic writing and professional photography annie.rubens@gmail.com

Photos by Bob Wydra of Did It Direct, carbon responsible marketing diditdirect@yahoo.com